The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

A Demon Walks Over A Battlefield

Thomas was on the wrong side of the city after one day of his arrival in Baghdad. He knew he wasn’t going to get a safe hotel in these parts, so he took a family hostage and 'stayed' with them. He locked up the single mother and her son in the basement, letting the mother out two times a day to make food for all of them.

He pointed a gun at the child’s face as long as the mother was out just to make sure she didn’t yell or try to pull off something smart. It wasn’t very gentlemanly, but there was no other choice. And Thomas had done far worse things to people, so he didn’t as much as flinch when he undertook this operation.

Now he knew that one of Jamaila’s bodyguards went to an illegal bar in the middle of the city, and he planned to do the same, just to have a 'chat' with him. Now alcohol was banned in the Muslim dominant country, but the government had opened bars for tourists and foreign officers coming to the nation. And after the terrorists took full control over these parts of Baghdad, they either burnt the little shops or transformed them into something entirely else, something more useful.

But as you can already guess, many of them were still running behind the shadows. When there's a war going on, no one pays much attention to illegal bars. And in one of those shady little places, Thomas was hawking for Aram, the infamous hitman who had been turned into a bodyguard for the senator’s daughter.

Thomas couldn’t help but notice the multiple eyes on him as he sipped the vodka in his glass. It took huge balls for an American to sit in these parts during broad daylight. And he had been sitting here for at least two hours, feeling the vulture like eyes clawing on him. But he wasn’t scared, and his confidence made the people around him reluctant to make a move on him.

After a while of waiting, he saw the bar gate open wide and a tall bulky man walked in. He was tall, fashionably dressed, and as handsome as you would expect a man around these parts. As soon as he lifted his index finger, the bartender started lining up shots. That meant he was not only someone with influence, but also that he was a regular here. With one good look, Thomas was sure that this was his man, and the aura of fear among other people turned his doubt into surety.

Thomas got up and walked into the bathroom, lit a Cuban cigar, and simply waited. He had already bribed the bartender to pour a liquid in the vodka, which would lead to an uncontrollable bladder.

As soon as Thomas finished his cigar, Aram rushed inside and opened his zip halfway to the toilet. He hardly even noticed that the man behind him was an American. As soon as his face relaxed a bit and his body felt light, Thomas slowed walked up to him.

He threw away the cigar butt and slid his hand into his pocket. Sweat beads appeared on Aram’s forehead as the sound of urine hitting the pot intensified. He wasn’t paying any attention to anything else going on around him.

Thomas patiently took out the polythene, and waited for the bodyguard to finish his business. But it was taking too damn long, I guess the bartender used way too much medication to be on the safe side. So Thomas decided to f**k it and get on with it.

He inflated the polythene and shoved it over the man’s head. The latter was startled at this sudden attempt to choke him, and waved his hands around to……I don't know, find something to hold. Thomas jumped and placed a knee on the man’s spine, essentially making him fall down and making the struggle even more futile. Aram couldn’t control his body and went down pissing. The urine flew in various directions and so did his limbs. After some time, Thomas' suit was wet with Aram's piss and this pissed him off.

At last, just before he was all out of life, Thomas removed the plastic from his face. Then, as the man gasped for breath in his unconscious state, Thomas got up. He placed the plastic back in his pocket, and lifted the big guy.

Thomas carried him out with one of his arms wrapped around Thomas’ shoulders, pretending like he had just drank too much alcohol to drive himself home. Thomas even rubbed his hands around the man's back, like he was comforting a man who had just vomited his lungs out.

And hence, without firing even a single bullet, Thomas had successfully captured the most vital of leads that he could secure for now. THIS is the difference between agents like Thomas and Tony. Agents like Tony are just too ruthless, they don’t understand a simple fact- if you have powers that others don’t possess, it dosen't mean you have to f*****g show them off. The greatest weapon you can wield is your mind. A skilled and sound minded man with a weak wooden bow can easily take out five rookies with full body armor and iron weapons. And Thomas just proved it.

He opened the main gate of the house, after making sure that he wasn’t followed and no one was around to see him go in. He had waited till the night to fall to make his move, and he used chloroform to keep the bodyguard knocked out until then.

He turned on the lights and opened the master bedroom on the first floor. He dropped the asleep man on the bed and changed the wet clothes which smelled of piss. After that, he went straight to the basement and took out the boy and his mother. The poor things were not as terrified as they were on the first day, partly because they knew that American secret agents don’t take pleasure in harming civilians. But it was a k********g nevertheless, so the duo was trying to figure out a way to get out alive. unfortunately for them, Thomas was just too smart a man to be fooled by a housewife and a child who couldn’t even speak his name clearly, let alone planning to escape with his mom.

Thomas took a hold of the child and raised his eyebrows, gesturing the woman to prepare food for him while he took care of another victim. Then, he took the boy with him to the master bedroom.

The bodyguard groaned from a headache as he slowly came to his senses. Thomas immediately took notice and walked to him.

“You…You fucki….” Aram was saying as he opened his eyes with great effort, but Thomas wasn’t prepared to wake him up just yet. As another dose of chloroform could be lethal, Thomas decided to use a more classic method. He crashed a jab right into the half dead man’s face, knocking him out immediately. Old tricks never disappoint.

He lifted the body and sat him down on a chair. The man was too damn heavy, and sweat covered Thomas’ face as he tried to balance him and tie him down at the same time. Then he turned his attention to the kid who was watching him with terror in his eyes, thinking that the same fate awaited him. A smile appeared on Thomas’ face, which was intended to calm the kid down. But instead, it made him even more scared.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that to you until you do something to anger me. Are you doing something that might anger me?” Thomas asked the kid sitting on the bed.

Thomas had worked alongside terrorists before, and his Arabic was as fluent as any other Afghan around here. So the kid answered with a rapid nod, rejecting Thomas’ idea.

After Thomas finished tying the man to the wooden chair, he took out a big backpack from under the bed. He opened it and revealed the contents. There were black sheet like structures inside. They were thin and stretchy.

Thomas took them one by one and stuck it all over the walls and windows of the room until the whole room was covered in blackness. The child was convinced that his time had come and tears rolled out of his eyes. Thomas didn’t pay much heed to it and continued his work.

“Come on, let’s go and eat.” Thomas said after he was finished. He took a look at the unconscious man, checking if he was still out. And then he punched him again just to make sure he wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon.

The child was crying silently with his face between his knees, and when he didn’t get up after repeated calls from Thomas, Thomas lost his patience. He wrapped his hand around the kid’s little belly and lifted him as he still cried. The boy protested but The kidnapper hardly noticed. It had been a long day and he was looking to get a hefty meal to prepare himself for the torturing of the bodyguard.

Surprisingly enough, as soon as Thomas put the kid down in the kitchen and the boy caught the sight of his mother, he stopped crying and ran straight towards his mother. He was too little to hug her, so he just tightened his tiny hands around her thighs. The woman saw this as a hindrance in her work and gently slapped the child. It wasn’t exactly tough love, so let’s just call it mother’s love.

Thomas smiled a little at this peaceful scene, and felt an emptiness growing inside him. He couldn't even remember his mother's face, let alone the memories with her.

“We could have a kid too, you know. But you were too loyal to your little heroic agency. Well, you have broken the rules anyway now, what difference did my murder make?” Amanda said, looking at the kid while standing beside Thomas.

Thomas didn’t reply but he couldn’t deny that she had a point. All that killings and the decades of loyal service, and it just took him one minute to go rogue.

“You betrayed me. You slept with Veda behind my back while I trusted you.” Thomas said and sat down heavily.

The woman turned around alarmingly. She looked around to see who Thomas was talking to, but after some time she realized that it was just a warrior carrying his burden.

“My husband was in the army too.” She said, speaking the first word since the morning. They were eating, and Thomas was devouring the food like a grizzly bear.

Thomas didn’t answer. I doubt that he even paid attention to what she said. So after a while of waiting, she spoke again.

“I know your pain. He was also like this when he came home from the war in Tangahar state. You see the ghosts of the enemies you have killed. But you’re safe here, just tell them to go and be strong when they try to push you.” The woman said softly.

As soon as Thomas heard the word ‘pain’, a fuse in his brain went off. He stood up in a fury and slapped the woman right in her face. The rice in her mouth dropped out as she struggled to prevent falling from the chair. The impact was so sudden and so powerful that it took her almost a minute before fathoming what had really happened.

Thomas’ eyes were red and his face was tenser than ever. He stared at the woman as she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

“Pain! What the f**k do you know about pain? Sitting here in your fancy house and eating twice a day while people are getting their heads torn off out there, and you dare lecture me about pain?!” Thomas yelled and stomped the table. The vibration was followed by a long silence in the room.

“You had no right to hit her!” Amanda shouted at Thomas.

“You shut the f**k up, YOU have no right to talk to ME after the things you made me do! I killed all of them because of you. If you had just repaid my love with love, I would have come back still a good man. You broke me, you understand? YOU f*****g BROKE ME!!” Thomas shouted and crashed in tears.

Tara took a hold over herself and got up, still rubbing her burning red cheek. She fetched a glass of water and placed it on the table, in front of Thomas. Thomas’ eyes were too blurry with salt water to notice it.

Finally, Tara summoned up her courage and placed her hand on Thomas’ back. Thomas immediately folded his hands around her waist as her dress soaked up with his tears. She rubbed his back as he whined in excruciating pain. Sometimes, the strongest of men break down the hardest. It was one hundred and seventy five years of regrets and pains coming out of his heart as he blabbered random s**t while gripping her tighter.

Finally, after at least half an hour of emotional breakdown, Thomas took a hold of the glass of water from the table. His hand shook violently as he sipped the whole glass of water down in one gulp.

Then, he looked at Tara and passed a weak smile. He gave her a brief nod of gratitude and apology, and she replied with another nod. He looked around, and Amanda was nowhere to be seen. He sighed in relief and they finished the meal like nothing had happened.

Tara was convinced that he was a good man, and that the times had forced him to be a cruel one. If she only knew what he was about to do to the man upstairs...but nevermind.